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In America, Tesla succeeded in giving a tough time to European luxury car manufacturers as the sales of its Model S in the region accounted for more than that of thee European premium vehicles.

Tesla Model S was launched three years ago but it has already forged its image for quality amongst luxury vehicle buyers. Overall, the sales of premium vehicles, such as Audi A8, Mercedes S Class, Porsche Panemera and BMW 7 series, were cut down last year, whereas sales of Model S increased by 51% from 2014.

Past year, the American electric vehicle maker delivered 24,202 Model S vehicles. Mercedes delivered 21,934 luxury S class vehicles. It succeeded in soundly trouncing premium models of Lexus and Jaguar by turning itself into a brand that appeals to luxury car buyers in such a small amount of time. Officials working at those automotive organizations noticed and scrambled for introducing their own premium electrically powered cars.

Porsche especially has pledged $1.5 billion to develop its own electric 4-door sports vehicle. Whereas others wait for private stakeholders or governments to develop the electric vehicle charger network to make electric vehicles appealing to mainstream buyers, Tesla established a SuperCharger network of its own.

Fortune reported that the automaker is planning to include 300 more charging facilities in the United States in 2016, bringing the cumulative to around 900. It is also promoting the so-called destination chargers installation at upscale hotels and shopping malls. Those would reach almost 2000 later this year. Compared to this, Porsche suggested its new Mission-E may feature power charging up to 800 kilowatts, but does not intend to establish a network of those charging facilities for its customers.

The network of Superchargers is a huge marketing advantage for the Tesla. It has also led the way in self-driving systems, outpacing all rivals, including Google and Apple. CEO Elon Musk addressed shareholders at the final quarter press conference by stating that cumulative sales for the current year would increase by more than half at 80,000 to 90,000, including both Model X and Model S vehicles.

Las Vegas Sun reported that a battery manufacturing company in Nevada, named K2 Energy Solutions, has entered the industry to compete with Tesla. It has hired 80 employees for its operation in the US and established production factories in China and Henderson.

The scope and size of the battery-producing startup is not like that of Tesla, but the organizations share more common factors than manufacturing batteries in the same region. In the same law that offered $1.3 billion in the form of incentives for developing Gigafactory in Northern Nevada, K2 has been provided incentives to establish its manufacturing plant in Henderson.

At the center of the growth of K2 is a lithium battery that has a design and chemical formula to make it long lasting. The competition is heating up for Tesla with this new entrant in the market.

Tesla Motors would deliver its budget EVs to offset the effect of sluggish sales in China.

Tesla intends to deliver its latest budget-friendly electric powered vehicles in Korea from 2016 to offset the impact of its sluggish growth of sales in the People’s Republic of China. “Based on our own research on the demand of EVs here, Tesla Motors plans to sell budget models from next year,” an official stated on Wednesday.

Tesla’s Model E would initially be delivered in the region with a proposed retail price of around 42 million won without any subsidies from the environment ministry of the country.

“The budget model will be offered at about 22 million won to local consumers with subsidies, making Tesla products highly-competitive in terms of pricing compared to other models offered by Hyundai-Kia and Renault-Samsung,” the official spoke to the Korea Times while maintaining anonymity.

The decision has been taken according to the organization’s strategy to expand its presence in the local automotive market after the recent opening of a legal office in Korea. Korea is a small automotive market for the company compared to the rest of Asian countries such as China, but industry monitors have indicated that the state has “huge potential” to expand rapidly, supported by the government measures to expand eco-friendly ventures.

A market research firm, EV Obsession, told that 955 electric cars were delivered in the Korean region in the first half of 2015, a rise of 162% on a yearly basis. An analyst believes that the EV producer is following a procedure to resettle its plan for China, and the Korean growth plan focusing on Jeju would prove to be a good litmus examination for it.

Such a low-key approach indicates that the automotive company has not imminently planned to establish superchargers on Jeju, as it is capable of already using established charging facilities. Jeju intends to reduce its levels of carbon emission to zero by 2020.

Tesla’s business growth could threaten major local automakers, as its Model E performs better than competing electric vehicles. For instance, Model E is capable of running 320 kilometers after one charge, while majority of local electric vehicles are able to cover a distance between 120km and 150km because models of electric vehicle maker use expanded batteries.

CAR magazine has released that Mercedes Benz would release the first of four electric vehicles in 2018, as it starts to battle with Tesla. Sources have disclosed the most recent developments: the first car would be introduced in market one year earlier than initially planned, as the BMW tries to compete with Audi and Porsche electric vehicles launching in 2018, the Q6 e-Tron and Mission E.

Elon Musk is ready to take chances to further expand but his management should not neglect any potential hurdle along the path.

The European Commission has levied antitrust charges against Qualcomm.

Qualcomm has been troubled in Europe. The chipmaker’s long lasting antitrust difficulties increased on Tuesday, as European regulatory agencies charged the San Diego based enterprise and a new inquiry was launched in Taiwan. The topmost antitrust regulator of the EU European commission stated yesterday it had indicated the organization for illegally making payments to a major client to exclusively utilize its semiconductors and deliver them at a price lower than cost to make its rival, Icera, leave the market.

Qualcommnews exclaimed that the commission’s chief, Margrethe Vestager, stated, “I am concerned that Qualcomm’s actions may have pushed out competitors or prevented them from competing”. If a confirmation of charges is carried out, the company can be fined 10% of its international yearly sales revenue for each accusation and be compelled to alter its commercial practices. Its total revenue this year was $25bn.

Qualcomm, which revealed the EU inquiry in the previous year, stated it was collaborating with regulators there. The organization’s general and EVP Don Rosenberg stated, “We look forward to demonstrating that competition in the sale of wireless chips has been and remains strong and dynamic, and that Qualcomm’s sales practices have always complied with European competition law.”

Qualcommnews today affirmed that the company has 90 days to give its response to the EU accusation of exclusive payments and 120 days to respond to the predatory pricing allegation. It could also file a request for an oral hearing session before the regulatory agency to explain its point of view in a better manner. This news was followed by a 5% decline in the price of company’s stock.

Qualcomm is the leading vendor of semiconductors for mobile gadgets including baseband chips that offer processors and cellular connections that operate smartphone softwares. The company earns a huge part of its profits from charging royalties to phone manufacturers for utilizing its cellular patents.

Majority of the official inquiries have so far concentrated on its authorizing practices. That is the issue investigated by the most recent probe in Taiwan, revealed by the company yesterday. Qualcomm stated authorities in that country are probing whether its authorizing measures breach the fair trade act of the country.

The company stated it holds the belief that it has acted according to the act and aims to collaborate with local regulators. QualcommBreaking news reported that the South Korean antitrust authority and the US Federal Trade commission are also conducting investigations into the patent authorizing practices of the organization.

The patent power of the corporation was the major focus of an extensive antitrust investigation in China, which the organization resolved in February by agreeing to pay a fine worth $975m and to alter some of its commercial practices.

MediaTek, the leading chip supplier for Chinese cellular phones, has stated that it intends to reverse the recent decline in profits by capturing Qualcomm’s share in handheld gadget market. Counterpoint Research has claimed that in recent times, the Hsinchu-based chip manufacturer has enjoyed higher levels of growth by delivering inexpensive chips to the growing phone manufacturing sector of China, which now contributes to 9 of the topmost 12 smartphone companies in the world as far as sales are concerned.

The stock price and profit of MediaTek have declined sharply in 2015, as the Chinese smartphone market slows and Qualcomm compete with inexpensive gadgets. However, CFO David Ku has claimed that technological improvements would allow the organization to increase sales, even in an established smartphone market, by attracting clients from the American chip market.

Qualcommnews exclaimed that Mr. Ku stated, “Our revenue from smartphones is only about $4bn, whereas Qualcomm has about $17 billion, so there’s plenty of room to grow, MediaTek can have very, very healthy growth, outpacing the industry.” His optimistic statements contradict with a series of downgrades done by analysts in 2015, as the net profit of the Taiwanese organization declined by 40% in the first three quarters yearly.

Credit Suisse’s analyst, Randy Abrams, stated that the decrease was a result of the enterprise’s efforts to “defend share at the expense of margin”. According to Gartner, rivalry has improved sharply at a time when sales of Chinese smartphones have slumped, resulting in the first yearly sales decline in the second quarter.

According to Mr. Ku, at the lower end of the market – delivering chips for 3G data connectivity but not the advance LTE gadgets – MediaTek is being pressurized by Spreadtrum, which is governed by China’s government and battles “on pricing not performance.”

At the higher end, for now, both organizations’ margins have been cut down by price rivalry between them – with Qualcomm’s move for the stepping up of new business after its semi-conductors were removed from the South Korean multinational giant’s latest leading phone.

Qualcommnews today affirmed that MediaTek has actively entered the market of LTE chips for highly advanced phones to the degree that it now contributes 40% of its sales volume while building a “duopoly” with the western chip-manufacturing organization.

Nevertheless, the entrance into the new technology market has proved to be economically painful for MediaTek due to its failure to live up to the technical standards of the North American chip manufacturer.

Qualcomm launches a new purpose-built system-on-chip (SoC) to provide an alternative to x86 in cloud data centers.

The American chipmaker, Qualcomm, has launched a new product, a pre-manufacturing chip in San Francisco on Thursday. This purpose-built system-on-chip differs from its Snapdragon processing device that combines storage, PCIe, and other tools.

QualcommNews affirmed that an employee, Anand Chandrasekhar, stated that the initial edition is equipped with 24 cores; however, the ultimate portion would be having much more power. The enterprise is offering the part to big clients now for experimenting, he stated though he refused to name them. He did not clarified that when it would be launched in the market. The company would provide news regarding this in the coming 12 months, Anand stated.

Qualcommnews today exclaimed that still, it has been making efforts to develop the part for two years and exposed it on Thursday, operating an edition of Linux, along with a KVM hypervisor, running high definition video to a personal computer. The chip was operating the LAM stack—PHP, MySQL, the Apache Web server, Linux and OpenStack cloud application.

The CEO of Xilinx, Moshe Gavrielov, stated, “We believe this will enable the market, which today is fully controlled by one player, to have diversification, and improved performance”, while mentioning Intel.

QualcommBreaking News reported that the Steven headed enterprise becomes a part of the huge list of enterprises operating at the same speed. Broadcom, Marvell, AMD, Applied Micro, and AMD are currently offering their ARM processors in the market.

The chip manufacturer has proved to be strong contestant, thanks to its big smartphone company, and it seems willing to make a huge investment. President of Qualcomm, Derek Aberle has stated, “We realize this is a long-term investment that will take multiple years”.

An official at Moor Insights & Strategy, Patrick Moorhead, has stated that the ARM chips have recently became a part of servers, and one could not state that Qualcomm could be left behind. A few big organizations have been utilizing ARM servers, such as Baidu and PayPal, but the market is yet in the experimental stage.

A big challenge is that the software stack is required to grow, he stated. An official at Insight64, Nathan Brookwood, tends to differentiate between two types of hyper-scale clients. Companies, such as Google and Facebook, pioneer their own servers and develop their own application. Similarly, for those companies, shifting to a new structure is more practical if they have enough benefits, he stated.

The newly introduced device would help Qualcomm to dominate the competitive market.

General Motors is now working towards releasing an electric Bolt soon in competition with Tesla’s Model 3

Tesla Motors is definitely setting a trend in the vehicle making industry of making electric cars that have gained more popularity that the firm would have ever thought. Recently, it was seen that General Motors has also decided to start making electric cars following the announcement it made it which the launch of Chevrolet Bolt EV was discussed.

This special vehicle of GM is going to be a full power hybrid car which will be compatible to run on a massive 200 miles if the battery is fully charged. This vehicle is also expected to bring about some high tech competition between the two autos makers as the Elon Musk’s smart car making company is also going to launch a new Model 3 in almost the same time in 2017.

This time around, Tesla has decided to cut down on the price of the vehicle it makes as it has announced that it wishes to start making smart cars now which are in reach of general public as well and one that just does not focus the elite. One big factor to be taken into consideration is, however, the price tags of both the cars of the rival companies that will be releasing together.

Musk’s firm is launching Model 3 with a price tag for $35,000 whereas General Motors is working towards pricing their car at around $30,000 which is comparatively much lesser. Even though both these price tags are much lesser than the current prices of the electric vehicles in the EV industry, the competition between the two companies can go a long way in the future.

Tesla has been making cars that carry a massive price tag which make them quite unreachable for the people in general. The last sedan that was launched by the auto giant was for around $75,000 which was affordable only for the elite of the industry, something that the firm wishes to change which is why it is now focusing on making electric cars but for half the price.

Analysts believe that it is very likely that General Motors goes ahead of Tesla in making an electric car with a low price tag, that available for the people of all classes since the firm has reportedly started the production activities of its car at its Orion Plant. As a teaser to show its rival, GM was recently seen to release a report on its upcoming car in which it talked about how successfully it is carrying out the production activities of Chevy Bolt and how that is something the auto maker should be worried about.

Chevron Corporation (NYSE:CVX) and Royal Dutch Shell have won tender to supply 1.45 million barrels of ultra-low sulfur diesels (ULSD) to state run Petroperu, the Peruvian oil and gas state company confirmed.

Petroperu launches the tender a week ago for the procurement of five 290,000-barrel cargoes of USLD for deliveries to begin around early August at the country’s ports located in Concha and Talara. Bids will be valid up till Thursday.

The US oil and gas major and Shell, who both jointly bid for the contract, will see the former delivering supplies on the first, fourth, and fifth cargoes, whereas the latter will supply second and third cargoes. The prices for the winning bids were not disclosed due to confidentiality policies.

Meanwhile, the duo have received a reprieve from the New Orleans judge court, which has thrown out a lawsuit filed by the widow, who claimed that her husband developed a blood cancer directly related to benzene while working at a gas station as an attendant during the 50s and 60s. The court said that Yolande Burst could not prove her husband’s exposure to gasoline responsible for his illness.

Earlier this month, the U.S. District Judge, Sarah Vance, granted a motion to Shell, along with Chevron and Texaco, to exclude the testimony from Robert Harrison, an expert whom Ms. Burst called to explain the linkage between the exposure to benzene and cancer. The defendants pointed out that Mr. Harrison offered to provide evidence, but failed to demonstrate the linkage.

Bernard E Burst Jr. had been diagnosed with myeloid leukemia, which is a blood and bone marrow cancer, and expired the same year. His wife claims that Burst had been working in various gas stations around New Orleans since the late 50’s to the early 70’s, and was allegedly exposed to gasoline from filling the tanks to do mechanical work.

Chevron’s stock price ended the day at $96.69, a decline of less than 2% from the previous day, as the company announced that it will consolidate its Covington and Lafayette offices by the end of 2016. This means that the company’s office at 5750 Johnston St. will be closed, though in a phase wise manner over the course of the next eighteen months. Around 300 workers are likely to be affected, but they will not be laid off in a single go. They will be downsized in phases in sync with the shifting of company headquarters and offices.